remember..

about a year back, while i was in camp as the duty sergeant on a weekend if my memory still serves me well, i received news that our divers will be activated to Cambodia to help recover bodies of the victims of a dragon boating accident.

i was posted to Naval Diving Unit and i know that one of their key roles will be to recover bodies of drowned victims. it was just like any other camp procedures to me. then, one of my guys told me that it was our national team rowers who drowned. that's when i went online to read up more about the accident.

my SISPEC buddy was a SAFRA rower so i immediately smsed him to check if he was ok. a nervous 5 minutes passed before i got the sms from him that he didn't go for the competition at Cambodia. he did mentioned that he lost some of his friends.

despite not being very close to him, i was glad that he was ok.

and somehow the deaths of our 5 national rowers, while being a national tragedy, didn't affect me too much.

next day, news report came out carrying the photos and names of the victims.

1 familiar name struck me.

checked the photo attached. 

NAH, not him. 

the photo don't match.

can't be lah.

afterall, there's thousands out there with same names in singapore no?

later that night, i received a sms from my best friend in secondary school, Alvin, informing me that weicheng was one of the victims in the accident.

i was... speechless?

called bishi immediately. we talked and no one seemed to be sure it's him. afterall, the photo attached was NOT him. no. it was that of a stranger, a foreign face.

not one of someone i know.

next morning. the headline news of LianHeZaoBao was on the dragon boat accident. this time, a different set of coloured photos were provided.

yes, it's him. 

a handsome photo of a 20 year old.

someone with a bright future.

someone who got himself a place in university.

someone who is an all-rounder.

someone who is awfully nice to his friends and family.

someone whose time came way too early for him.

i wasn't very close to him but we got along well alright. 

we went to the same secondary school and junior college and he's just a very very nice person.

he's my friend. albeit not a close one. but still, he's my friend.

the mood at the his funeral was weird, sombre and tense.

but emotions were subdued and restrained.

then came the day of his cremation.

bishi and i went together, our feelings were still very much that of denial.

no one can fully comprehend what happened and why it happened.

no one can understand the unjustness done to our friend when his life was extinguished way before the fuel even runs low.

one by one, the best friends of the deceased rowers delivered an eulogy.

when weicheng's turn came and his friend started breaking down in the midst of the eulogy, all raw emotions erupted from within. the floodgates which have kept our tears and sadness under wraps for thus long have been opened. i stole a glance at bishi to find her in tears too.

i tried to look for comfort in familiar faces around, but all around was blurry. 

i couldn't see.

that's when i realised i was crying too.

you will always be remembered in our hearts, weicheng.

sidenote:

Weicheng's memorial service will be held on sunday 8-10am.

in front of Jurong East 7th Day Adv. Church.

it'll be held below his HDB block.